1. Let's start out WAY in the beginning: college preparation. PRO TIP: You can get fee waivers for the SAT *and* most colleges through Common App.
   
   If you have a guidance counselor, or for transfers – a financial aid office willing to help, usually a letter of hardship will cover you if it’s not already offered through the application.
   
   
2. One more on admissions testing... spending what little money you can on standardized test prep is worth it.
   
   It costs less to buy SAT (and later on, GRE) books than it does to re-take the tests to get better scores. Plus, the better your score, the better your merit aid officers in some cases.
   
   I wish standardized tests were not a financial scheme that’s over-regulating public school education, but the reality is, these scores do impact your college prospects and it is a necessity to take them seriously if you’re going to continue your education (a decision I fully support by the way – go to college, just do it smart!).
   
   
3. Some bad news: You won’t necessarily have enough loans to cover costs just because you need them.
   
   First of all, you don’t get 100% loans covered just because you apply for financial aid. The school will offer what they have. The state and the federal government also have their own caps. The rest is up to you, and what that exact "net price" will be varies wildly in financial packaging - even if you used a net price calculator. (My experience is that the actual offers, except for estimated FAFSA, tend to be much less.)
   
   Often, you have to look at private loans, some of which don’t have the same protection that federal loans offer (like high-need students having interest partially subsidized until they graduate or a grace period for repayment).
   
   
4. More bad news: You might need to work to stay in college.
   
   You may have part of your financial aid package be work study, like working in dining hall kitchens or cleaning dorm bathrooms as a first year before aging into upperclassmen positions (like departmental assistants).
   
   If you cannot get enough loans to cover food and housing in the following years, you may also have installment payments you must pay at various intervals.
   
   
5. Okay, a little more: Your first year financial aid package might change for your second, third, or forth years.
   
   While some colleges promise to maintain your package, there are certainly private institutions that will offer less and less as the years go by. You may have to fight and negotiate to keep your original package year by year, which may or may not include going through bureaucratic hoops and hurdles like providing excessive income documentation or submitting paperwork to request funding reconsideration.
   
6. Here's what you can do! Part one: Applying for scholarships saves you serious money, time, and energy in the long run.
   
   Although it’s tempting to skip the extra applications and essays and accept the loans you’re offered, those loans are things you will have to pay back four years from now.
   
   Every dollar you save yourself is one less dollar you have take out of your future salary in paying them back. Trust me, while you have free time and aren’t working to pay back anything, apply relentlessly for scholarships. You might even cover your full tuition! If you don’t, little ones – which have less competition and less applicants – certainly add up and make a meaningful difference.
   
   
7. You can also be hellllllla prepared: Know your stuff! For example, you have a timeline! With deadlines!
   
   No, not just for personal statements and recommendations – for money too. Just like for your college applications to-do-list and timeline, you have a paying-for-school timeline.
   
   You have to fill out your FAFSA to get anywhere for support! That’s your first stop. If you’re going to a private four year, they’ll probably want your CSS profile. Further, if you apply for federal loans, know your servicer and keep up with your digital paperwork. Make sure you talk to a guidance counsellor or even email your school’s admissions to see that you have all you need submitted. Finding a current college student willing to help you out, especially if it’s a connection at your priority schools, is always the most helpful thing you can do for yourself.
   
8. Big mistake to avoid? Do not, I repeat, do not open a credit card.
   
   Not unless you’re totally on top of your finances and are doing it in a meticulously planned and managed effort to build credit. No matter how good you are, your one-in-a-while splurges or emergencies add up, and there’s no forgiveness programs or grace periods with credit debt. Save if you can, but always explore what you would do without a credit card in an emergency (including reaching out to your network or applying for grants if you have to) before ever considering falling back on that.
   
   
9. Here's the deal: College isn’t just expensive, it’s REALLY expensive.
   
   You may think that you’re going into a lucrative path for whatever reason, or that with your degree you will have a salary that will cover it. Do remember that you won’t be able to live at the quality-of-living of someone with that salary from the get-go because you will have a debt burden interfering with your ability to have access to your own income.
   
   
10. You have options: community college can save you $120,000.
    
    Let’s get real here: numbers. If you pay $65,000 a year at a private school for tuition, fees, meal plan, and residence, not including equipment or whatever else gets added on, then that number is not going to go down any easier when you do it over the course of 4 years.
    
    Say you pay $2,500-$3500 for tuition at a community college, minus FAFSA grants or mini scholarships or whatever else you may have going on. If you’re a Pell recipient, it’s possible the entirety of that could be covered by a grant. Theoretically, if you’re able to commute by using public transportation, find a local school within a small radius, or even catch rides, you could pay next to nothing to get to school – and get as close to free college as you’re going to get in the US. Even if you pay for gas and to keep your car on the road to get there, you’re still saving thousands and thousands of dollars in debt.
    
    It’s 100% true that it’s a super valid option to go to a community college, get your core distribution requirements done, and transfer to your four-year. It may not always be easy, but it’s economically brilliant (and for some, the only way college is economically possible) for low income students --- and I’m forever glad that this is the choice I made to do it.
    
    
11. Insider tip? Sometimes, you can negotiate your financial aid offers.
    
    This is more important when you’re fighting for a school to give you what they gave you last year in financial aid, or asking that they compensate a rise in tuition at the same ratio in aid funding.
    
    However, there is an option even before going to school your first year.
    
    I do think the web tends to make this sound easier and more common than it is, but if you have two schools of equal prestige with different financial aid packages, you can certainly haggle. If you get into a more prestigious school than where you want to attend, you can tell your current school that if they up their grant or loans then you will take your worthy self to their institution instead. Or, you can take a better offer to a school of comparable value and ask your preferred choice to match their competitor’s offer. It’s not easy and it may not work, but it is an option that is available to you. Be tactful, and do your homework.
    
    
12. What are you hoping for anyway? Look for 100% need met schools – especially if you’re a freshman.
    
    It’s smart to settle for the best aid package. Or rather, the best net price – in most fields. If it comes down to a choice between a private school campus and less debt, choose less debt – especially if their ranks or post grad employability are the same.
    
    However, an Ivy League versus an underfunded state school is a different conversation. Top schools certainly do offer cultural capital, networking access, alumnae access, and social mobility that others might not.
    
    The good news is that the better the endowment, the better the financial aid. While these schools are more competitive by a long shot, you should always consider a few on your list. Don’t let imposter syndrome keep you from at least applying if your grades, scores, experience, or passion are on point.
    
    
13. Some hard truths: Some schools, even need-blind schools, won't offer you admission for financial reasons.
    
    Without government funding and the educational policy for higher education, that’s the foreseeable future – especially as costs rise.
    
    The more expensive your school, the more it costs to send you there, period. Less expensive schools have fewer resources, but they also promise less in the first place, and are usually less likely to fail to offer you a place on money alone. This is prestige and business and a lot of other complicated factors rolled into one, and if it’s a topic that interests you, seek out the underrepresentation studies and statistics of low income students in America’s (top especially) colleges.
    
    Even if your school doesn’t show an obvious interest in legacies (more common at “elite” institutions), and even if they claim to be need-blind, they are not necessarily totally need-blind. Those that are, tend only to be for incoming first years, which makes this a little more complicated for transfer students seeking admission.
    
    Colleges are businesses, they have needs and to meet those needs, and they have bottom lines. If they have to pay your tuition, your books, your housing, and your dining – then they might conclude that either they can’t afford to on-board you, or that you don’t have the financial means to be successful for all four years.
    
    It is a huge expense, and offering you a place – particularly if they are a school that has a full need-met financial aid policy – is like offering a full ride beyond what most scholarship organizations even do. If it’s a choice between you and someone that can financially prove they can afford to stay in school, meet their own needs, and return after the first year, then not only does it help keep them out of the red, but it also improves their statistics.
15. What do you do? FAQ: The answer to the question of, “is it better to have no savings to be eligible for bigger college grants?” or “is it better to save for college even though it might reflect more income than I actually have?” is SAVE.
    
    I fundamentally believe you can go to school on the shortest of short notice and that the right time will always be now. However, if it is possible to save for your education, do it. See point above. Sometimes it’s as simple as proving that you have the resources to make it. No one is going to assume that your income is something its not – it’s why the FAFSA was so detailed.
    
    Likewise, I want to reiterate: APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIPS. You are not wasting your time --- never assume your school is going to give you a full ride, even if they claim that they’re 100% need met or that their net price calculator implies you’ll have next to nothing after their randomly calculated grants. As much as I wish the process of funding educations were equal, based strictly on numbers, and automatic – money gets moved around in strange ways, hence the negotiation point above. Any time you can get support through your school just to attend your school, great. Any time you can get support from somewhere else to attend your school, great.
    
    
16. At the end of the day, you need to do one thing above everything else: believe in yourself – and whatever you do, once you start, don’t quit.
    
    Hang in there, stick it out, and once you have started – unless you get a million dollar grant to take a gap year – don’t drop out. You’ll want the job on that other end of the degree to pay for your first semester just as much as your last.
    
    It sounds campy, but believe me, I know what it’s like to come from no money for school and no financial support from home. This article is not to trouble or stress you out, but instead to say, I did it successfully, with as little debt as I could manage, and I believe everyone can with the right access to information and planning.
    
    In all the interviews I’ve conducted and experiences I’ve had over the last four years, it is still my absolute belief that the college investment is worth it for low-income students on prospects, exposure to diversity, cultural capital, and social mobility alone. Be smart, take a deep breath, prepare the best you can, and know that any college student without silver spoons is going through the exact same thing. It’s the conundrum of our generation, but we are still capable of moving forward with dreams and possibilities.

As a college student, you’re perfectly entitled to be a hot mess. Just don’t forget you’ve got this.